Justice Looks Askance as Obama Criticizes Court

WASHINGTON (AP) - The man in the House chamber openly disagreeing with President Barack Obama as he spoke to Congress wasn't an over-the-top Republican or a seething Democrat. He was a Supreme Court justice, Samuel Alito.

Obama had taken the unusual step of scolding the high court in his State of the Union address Wednesday. "With all due deference to the separation of powers," he began, the court last week "reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests - including foreign corporations - to spend without limit in our elections."

Alito made a dismissive face and began shaking his head at the mention of reversal and appeared to mouth the words "not true" or possibly "simply not true."

A reliable conservative appointed to the court by RepublicanPresident George W. Bush, Alito was in the majority in the 5-4 ruling.

Senate Democratic leaders sitting immediately behind Alito and other members of the high court rose and clapped loudly in their direction, with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., leaning slightly forward with the most enthusiastic applause.

It wasn't the "You lie!" moment that brought Obama's last speech to a screeching halt. In fact, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., who shouted it, was stonefaced throughout Obama's latest speech, even rising a few times to applaud.

While Obama spoke to a Congress dominated by Democrats, the smiles and the applause that interrupted the president dozens of times during his 69-minute address belied the Democrat-vs.-Democrat anger that has been roiling the ranks of the party's lawmakers.

For most of them, no issue is more pressing than getting re-elected in November. And it's not clear that pursuing Obama's priorities will help them achieve theirs.

In personal and profane terms, House and Senate Democrats have huddled behind closed doors to list the debacles: The stunner in Massachusetts that cost the Democrats a Senate seat. The slow-motion collapse of health care talks. A government bailout of Wall Street while unemployment sits in double-digits.

"It just stinks to the high heaven what happened here," Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., railed earlier in the day at Obama's treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner.

Lynch was talking about the bailout, but the statement could well describe the Democrats' attitude about Obama's performance and the toll it's taken on their political standing.

One powerful House Democrat released a scathing statement about the White House before Obama had finished speaking.

"Somewhere along the line, the White House lost its way," said Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the Armed Services Committee. "Instead of focusing on solutions to help America's families wade through the wreckage of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, Washington has wasted valuable time wrestling with partisan politics in an effort to rush through drastic reforms that do not directly address our most immediate needs."

Skelton added: "The president's address has lent us all hope - hope that the administration is finally heeding our concerns. It's about time."

Other Democrats aimed their ire across the Capitol. Some were elated that Obama several times urged the Senate to act on House-passed legislation on a range of subjects, from health care reform to a freeze on discretionary spending.

"He spanked the Senate five times," said Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y. Then he found a pithy way to describe the threat that some Democrats pose to others.

Republicans were making a studied effort to stay out of the way and avoid another "You lie" moment. The House's three top Republican leaders - Reps. John Boehner of Ohio, Eric Cantor of Virginia and Mike Pence of Indiana - all lectured their troops before the address that the president should be treated with respect.

Democrats for days were questioning whether to stand with the president, congressional leaders or neither.

Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., did more than ask. In a private meeting the day after Republican Scott Brown won Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's Senate seat, Titus used a profanity to describe to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and freshman lawmakers the Democratic Party's prospects in the midterm elections if it ignores the lessons of Massachusetts.

Some House Democrats have privately blamed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who faces a tough re-election fight in Nevada, for the party's woes and the health care bill's poor prospects.

Rep. Marion Berry, D-Ark., who is retiring at the end of the year, said of Obama what some Americans have said all year: "'You're trying to do too much too quickly."'

"Maybe we should listen to them," Berry said. "If we don't listen to them, then they will make you listen to them in November."

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